Sue Sprano spent most of her 23 years as a teacher focused on Virginia history. She taught students about the first governor, “some good governors and some bad governors” in between and the first Black governor in Virginia.
Now she can tell students about Abigail Spanberger, the first woman elected governor of Virginia.
Girls and women like Sprano came to Richmond from across Southwest Virginia to witness the historic event firsthand on Saturday.
Sprano has been the school librarian at Spiller Elementary School in Wythe County for five years, after two decades of teaching.
“I am just so excited that our state is finally making this history-changing moment,” Sprano said in an interview prior to the inauguration weekend. “I have two teenage daughters, and I am just so excited that every little girl can see that they can do whatever they want to do, and there is no stopping them.”
She only had one ticket for the inauguration ceremony, but plans to bring her daughters to the Executive Mansion open house on Sunday so they can still experience the weekend, she said.
Spanberger’s three daughters sat behind her during her speech, beaming at her, as Spanberger addressed the historical importance of her election.
“On these steps, Virginia’s suffragists brought their cause to the General Assembly, session after session, decade after decade,” she said. “And though these brave women were voted down, time and time again, they refused to give up.”
Sprano, who said this was the first inauguration she has attended, said she’s worried about issues affecting women, like “our freedom to choose what we do with our bodies.”
She said while she likes to keep politics out of her conversations with students, she’ll definitely teach them about Spanberger — especially with Women’s History Month coming up in March.
Some kids at her school, Sprano said, are told things at home that “are not the way things are really done in democracy and in the government.”
“I try to be truthful with them and explain to them that there are politicians there that are working hard to make their lives better and to make Virginia a better place,” she said.
Sprano said later that she was “stunned” as she sat in the stands, watching the inauguration.
“She’s not afraid to say what she thinks. And I appreciate that,” Sprano said. “It was just wonderful.”
Nikki Williams, chief executive officer of the Girl Scouts of Virginia Skyline, which covers the southwest part of the commonwealth, said the experience of being at the inauguration was educational “in and of itself” for the girls.
More than 200 Girl Scouts from across the state marched in the parade following the inauguration, and scouts from Southwest Virginia ran a booth during the Made in Virginia Market on Friday afternoon.
London Graham, a 9-year-old scout from Dublin, helped sell cookies at the market.
She said her favorite part of the Girl Scouts is selling cookies to make money to go on trips, like a recent trip she went on to a water park in Massanutten. When asked if she might like to be governor one day, she grinned shyly and nodded.
Williams said Spanberger has been “incredibly supportive” of the Girl Scouts, as she was a troop leader herself and her daughters were involved in Scouting.
She said the Girl Scouts can earn democracy badges and participate in Advocacy Day, where they learn about public policy and the government.
Participating in the inauguration weekend helps the girls understand “how connected we all are,” Williams said. “It really is united in all of Virginia and allows us to be a part of that, and feel like we’re all one big family.”
Meghan Carty, who lives in Bristol, said in an interview Wednesday that she’d be traveling almost five hours to witness the inauguration in person.
“I’ve been there and experienced it,” she said of events like this one, “and then looked at how the TV portrayed it and it’s just not the same. There’s just something really magical when you’re at an event and to feel all the excitement of the crowd. The excitement of a woman taking the highest office in our state is something you can’t really experience on TV.”
She compared that excitement to watching a favorite football team win the playoffs.
Carty brought her 13-year-old daughter, Caroline, who loves learning about history. This will be a memory “she can take with her forever,” Carty said.
“I work in a predominantly male industry, and those glass ceilings are really hard to break,” she said.
Carty said her daughter recently told her that during the election cycle, a boy at school said he didn’t want to have a woman as Virginia’s governor. Carty said she wishes the political landscape weren’t so “divisive.”
“I try to teach my kids to not demonize people for their beliefs,” Carty said. “Sometimes I think when we look and see where someone is coming from, it might make more sense and we can compromise more.”
Standing beneath the stage where Spanberger had been inaugurated just an hour before, Carty and Caroline were excited to have been in the stands when the new governor took her oath.
“It was amazing,” Carty said. “And I thought it would be a lot bigger. So it made it feel even more special.”
“It’s really exciting,” Caroline agreed, nodding and smiling as her mother spoke about the day.